Are they deeply technical?
The best engineering managers we’ve worked with never really stopped being engineers. They have opinions about technical decisions, they can actually evaluate the work their team is doing, and they earn respect through judgment rather than a title on an org chart. If you can’t get deep in the weeds with the team, you’re going to have a hard time leading engineers who live there.
Do they develop people, not just ship software?
The job here isn’t to be the best engineer on the team or to review every line of code. It’s to give engineers real ownership, hold them to it, and help them get better over time. Sometimes that means stepping in, sometimes it means getting out of the way, and sometimes it means having a hard conversation nobody wants to have. A good manager knows the difference and takes responsibility for the team’s outcomes either way.
Do they do it for the why?
At Convex, “my manager told me to” is not a satisfactory answer to why we’re building something, even if the manager is the CTO. Engineers here don’t just do things because they’re told, they do them because they believe in them. A great EM spends the time to make sure the team understands the why, and when there’s a disagreement, digs into the root of it rather than pulling rank.
Are they obsessed with craft?
Craft is the difference between something that technically works and something people actually love to use, and it’s most of what separates a good developer platform from a great one. We want a manager who sweats the details most people would let slide, holds a high bar for how things feel to build with, and can pull that same standard out of the engineers around them.
Do they value simplicity and pragmatism?
Simplicity is at the heart of all good systems, and it turns out it’s at the heart of good engineering leadership too. We want someone with a bias toward doing fewer things better, who pushes back on unnecessary complexity, and who knows when to tell the team to stop gold-plating something and just ship it because we’re a startup and need to move.
Do they bring energy to the room?
Startups are hard. Building something from nothing is hard. Driving forward progress despite uncertainty is hard. Shitting on stuff is easy and just brings everyone else down. We have a high bar for quality but also a high bar for being constructive, positive, and excited about making things better. We’re meant to be having fun here.
Are they worthy of trust?
Integrity underlies everything we do at Convex, and for a manager it matters even more. The team needs to trust that you’ll be honest with them, go to bat for them, and do the right thing when no one is watching. Trust is hard to build and easy to destroy. We want someone who treats it as a way of life, not something you switch on when people are looking.